Through the rain, we pile into a tight left-hander on the drenched Mallorcan race circuit. Sure enough, the S4's nose pushes wide, resisting any effort to be wrestled into oversteer. Sensible. Locked down. Audi-ish.

"See?" continues the engineer in impassive Teutonic monotone. He presses the button a couple more times. "Now you shall oversteer."

We hit a similarly tight-radius right-hander, and the S4 launches sideways into a lurid, tail-happy drift. A fraction before we reach that critical backwards-into-barrier moment, the rear end catches, and the S4 barrels out on to the straight. Most un-Audi.